Forty years ago this summer, in an era
when routes were being closed and paddle steamers were making off for the
breakers with ever increasing frequency, Weymouth suddenly found itself with two
excursion steamers locked in fierce competition for what was, by then, a vastly
diminished trade.

Consul, pictured off Kingswear in
her 1964 colours, returned to Weymouth that year to revive the Lulworth Cove
landing trips abandoned by Cosens & Co in 1962.

This put her in direct competition with
the Princess Elizabeth, pictured above, which had taken over the Weymouth
sailings after Cosens had sold the Consul in 1962.

Both ships ran to Lulworth Cove but only
the Consul called there as her operators never tired of pointing out.
On Wednesdays and some Fridays in the peak weeks Princess Elizabeth sailed on the popular and
remunerative run to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight leaving the way clear for the
Consul on the local trips. For potential passengers to tell them apart, their
promotional material described them as "The Red Funnel Ship" and "The Ship
with the Yellow Funnel" respectively.

As may be imagined, relations between
the two operators started in a rather less than cordial atmosphere which
continued downwards ever after with allegations of one thing or another being
made by one side and counter allegations of another thing and something else
being made by the other. Consul's owners were doubtless cock-a-hoop when
Princess Elizabeth ran out of fuel one day in the Solent and received a
reprimand from the Board of Trade. And Princess Elizabeth's owners
were doubtless cock-a-hoop when a Board of Trade surveyor turned up, perhaps as
a result of a tip off, to find that Consul was overloaded by sixteen
passengers as recorded in the press cutting above. Some may say that this was
not altogether fair as Consul had had her Passenger Certificate slashed
from over 400 to just 230 for 1964 and she still carried LSA for over 400 but,
nevertheless, it was an offence and her master, Capt Holleyoak, was prosecuted
and fined £10.

Consul lasted until the end of
August after which she was withdrawn never to operate again and, after a spell as
an accommodation ship at Dartmouth, was scrapped in 1968. Princess Elizabeth
continued to run at Weymouth in 1965 but that was the end of her operational
career. After periods as a static ship on the Thames and then in Paris she is now a
conference venue in Dunkirk.

One person who greatly benefited from
the 1964 Weymouth Paddle Steamer War was Bob Wills, a former employee of Cosens
and Chief Engineer of the paddle steamers Empress and Consul. At
that time he was running the fifty passenger launch Topaz from a pitch on
the Pleasure Pier which all intending passengers for the two paddle steamers had
to pass. Bob's keen commercial antennae soon picked up the fact that he was
often asked by people if they were going the right way for the "Red Funnel Ship"
or the "Ship with the Yellow Funnel". Ever eager to improve his own business, Bob
painted the diminutive funnel perched on the top of the cabin of the tiny
Topaz half red and half yellow so when asked the question again he could
legitimately say "This way Madam!" Bob always said that 1964 was one of the best
seasons he ever had with his "Topey"!